Life, Love, and Second Chances
by pixiegirl100
Summary: Naruto put his life on the line for everyone. They put their lives on the line for him. So he thought that they deserved one more chance. What they didn't know was that something wasn't happy about it.
1. Prolouge

The sound of the rain bat against his eardrums. His eyes blinked away the water and tears. He couldn't cry. He couldn't cry!

_Fire loses to Water. Water loses to Earth. Earth loses to Lightning, and Lightning loses to Wind. So your element is perfect for Sasuke._

'No.' thought Naruto as he remembered those words. 'It's perfect for Sasuke because only Wind can make Fire stronger.'

Sasuke looked at Naruto. His eyes were cold, but his thoughts were confused. Naruto...was crying. Or was it the rain. This brought back memories, this face-off of theirs. Memories he could never forget.

Naruto was the first to look away. His eyes took in the huge face staring at him. The sealing statue. He didn't flinch as the chakra that blew around struck him. Sasuke was nimbly trying to dodge it.

"What the hell are you doing, stupid fool!?" Sasuke noticed that Naruto was not running from the chakra.

'I know he's gotten stronger, but to just stand there? Does he think he can take on all of them? There's no way, he'll be killed.'

* * *

Sakura held Kakashi up as she stared into the distance. Even from miles away, she could see it. The chakra that flew into the air and screamed loudly, loudly. Screamed for its freedom, for a chance to act on its rage, hatred, love of pain, to hurt to kill to hurt to kill.

She turned away, but went no further.

"Sakura," began Kakashi. "Go."

Sakura turned to her teacher, her eyes saying a million things, but he knew of only one.

'Sorry, Kakashi-sensei.'

Her feet went quickly towards the Akatsuki base.

"If Sakura goes, we all go."

Kakashi stared as the rest of the Rookie 9 came to join. Even Gai's team was there.

"What of the village?"

"Don't give us that bullshit. You know you can't stop us. We've been there for him, we sent him there, we fought against them. You cannot stop us." Kiba looked at Kakashi, just daring him to disagree. He didn't.

All of them left, with Sai following Sakura. Team Kakashi in the lead, followed by the rest of Naruto's close friends.

* * *

Naruto could feel the Kyuubi struggling.

**'LET ME OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'**

Naruto could feel the chakra drain on him as his wounds healed. He could hear the Kyuubi roaring to regain his control as the strongest demon.

There were bodies around. He had the chance to make friends with them, as they all shared a common ground. They were all jinchuuriki. They were all human sacrifices, in more ways than one. And all eight of them were dead. Their demons were all in that sealing statue.

_Naruto, that sealing statue will be unstable without the nine-tails along with the other demons. In other words, we will have to destroy it. They're keeping it stable by providing a constant, if not moderately sized, stream of chakra. Once we kill them, we will have to destroy it, so I'm off. I need to find a way to do so._

Those were the words of the six-tailed jinchuuriki. She was always bad with words, speaking in fragments the way she did. And she did find a way to destroy the statue. He had known from the beginning that he could not become Hokage. He was strong enough, the village approved, but he had had a feeling.

"Get the hell away from there, dobe!" yelled Sasuke. He had already retreated to a safer distance. Although the chakra still reached, it was easier to dodge. Naruto, meanwhile, only walked closer to it.

"Get away from here, Sasuke. There's nothing more you can do." Naruto stated calmly, flinching only when what he felt to be the chakra of the two-tailed cat to cause a particularly painful wound on his side.

"What the hell are you doing, usuratonkachi?!" yelled Sasuke. "Don't make me have to come get you!"

Karin held onto Sasuke as she saw that he was heading towards the Konoha nin.

"Damn it, Sasuke! Juugo's already dead, Suigetsu needs attention, and now you're going too?!"

"Let go, Karin."

Karin looked at Sasuke. He was staring intently at Naruto, who was slowly walking towards the statue, as one would walk to their inevitable death. She loosened her grip.

"Stop right there!" yelled Sakura. Karin grabbed onto her shoulder where the kunai Sakura had sent had grazed her shoulder.

"Sasuke!"

Sasuke turned, his eyes back to their haughty and cold appearance. "Sakura. I thought you had taken Kakashi to Konoha."

Sakura glared at him. "I'm not here for you as much as I am for Naruto. She sent her eyes towards Naruto.

"Naruto! Get the hell away from that! What if she was wrong! You'll be throwing your life away!"

Sasuke registered her words. "What's he planning on doing?"

Karin looked at the two as she withdrew her arm away from Sasuke. She was torn from Sasuke regaining any feelings for either old teammates and his speaking with Sakura keeping him away from the statue.

Sakura looked away as she tried to get closer to Naruto.

"Stay where you are. All of you!" screamed Naruto. His eyes were hidden under his bangs. He had manipulated his chakra into becoming wind, then used that to create a sort of tornado in front of the ninja.

"Tsunade-sama forbade you from using it! It was a direct order! Are you going to disobey her? As Konoha ninja, we are to follow orders." Sakura stared at the wall of air whizzing in front of her. She was positive it would tear her apart if she dared touch it.

Naruto heard her words, but said nothing. In response, his hands went to the back of his head, where he untied the simple knot that kept his headband in place. Then he threw it away.

"Naruto-kun!" screamed Hinata, getting there in time to see him throw it away.

Shikamaru threw a look around the place. He had never been there before, but it looked as if there was a lot of damage from the battle. He noticed the dead bodies and briefly registered that some of them had been in contact with Naruto. His eyes widened at the form of the Kazekage. Temari was there, holding onto the body of her dear brother. Kankuro was on the other side of the field, barely breathing. Not to mention the dead bodies of the Akatsuki, and the Uchiha. By the time he looked at Naruto, Naruto was nearly to the statue.

"Shit!" said Kiba as he saw it would be nearly impossible to get through.

"Ino." said Sai, and she immediately understood where he was going. She positioned herself to try her mind-transfer jutsu.

"It would be better if you got out of here. If she tries that, I'll redirect her to the damn fox's cage."

Shikamaru threw his arm out, stopping Ino.

"He's right, but Naruto. Are you sure you want to do this?" The last part was screamed.

Naruto turned around. "Get the hell out of here! All of you! The chakra backlash could kill you!"

He held his arm as the muscle kept being torn. He was almost completely surrounded by the chakra, it was killing him. Slowly, painfully, he began making seals.

**'LET ME OUT!'**

"Naruto!"

"Fool!"

There were screams as Naruto undid his own seal and simultaneously created another.

"Chidori!"

Sasuke cut straight through the wall, finally understanding what Naruto was about to do.

There was a flash, and it was over.

* * *

"And that's all that happened?" asked the young girl. She kept her eyes fixed upon the man telling the story. 

"Ai, don't be so rude!" whispered another girl next to her. The old man just chuckled.

"Actually, that's where I come in. Do you think they all deserve to die, Ai?"

Ai, being just a young child who still didn't really understand death, gave a confused look.

"Well, it's nice being here." she said. She looked up at the man, her eyes pleading with him to tell her.

The old man laughed. "That's true, but I think that they all needed another chance, and that's what I gave to them."

"To all of them?" asked Ai.

"Yes. There were many persons that they all had bonds with."

_He looked at the scene. So many dead, surrounded by the life that had grown due to the chakra that was released. So many dead. He could still see them, the thin lines of life. They stretched to everything, even after death. Some were faint, some caused by memories. Easily broken. Yet, there were also _those_. Those that would tear at their hearts at being broken. He couldn't do it, he had done it so many times already. It might be selfish of him, but he would follow through. Another chance, just one more. A rare gift, and all were worthy. In fact, all their bonds were worthy. He called them, those threads of life, love. He called them, and called them. To even those that were dead as well as alive. And he did it._

The girl smiled. "That's good! That story was so sad, how they were all sad, and they wanted something they could never get. So what happens next?"

"Well, that's why I called you. I thought you might want to watch."

* * *

Just to let you all know, the old man was God, or whatever higher being there is. Didn't want to straight out call him God, what with my own personal beliefs and everything. What happened was that he took mercy on all of them and let them be reborn. Not reincarnated, I always thought of that differently. Don't know the difference? Well, reborn, they're back. Reincarnated? Their memories. Kinda hard for me to explain. Anyways, first fic, please review. Although I'd understand if you don't, please. I don't have the story planned out yet, so any ideas are extremely helpful. 

This was just to explain how it happened, the next story delves more into their lives after being reborn. Remember, review please! It would mean a lot to me to hear your inputs. :)


	2. Chapter 1

**AN: **Hi! Here's another chapter for you! Oh, for those that were confused during the first chapter (even though only ONE person said something, or anything, about it) this is what happened. Naruto, being the hero and all, heard from one of the other jinchuuriki, now dead, that sealing statue was out of balance and could implode, releasing all the demons. And demons on the loose is a big no-no. So that jinchuuriki went and tried to figure out how to stop it, and she did. Unfortunately, there isn't a way to stop it without killing the person, being Naruto. Naruto released his seal, then before the Kyuubi took over, he used all that chakra to reseal the demons in himself. When he died due to chakra loss and all that, they died with him. Since Naruto is not an expert sealer and all of that, though, there was a chakra backlash and everybody that wasn't dead yet died.

Anywho, I noticed in the last chapter I forgot to put a disclaimer! Whoops! So, here we go.

**DISCLAIMER:** I don't own Naruto. But if somebody were to give him to me, I wouldn't mind!

* * *

"Hurry up, would you?"

"I'm coming, I'm coming. Keep your socks on, I'm coming." muttered the boy darkly.

"Why would she take her socks off, Naruto-san?" asked the other boy once they begin walking.

"It's just another expression, Sai. Jeez." said the girl.

Naruto turned his blue eyes to the girl. "Hey, Ino, did you hear? This year, we're going to another country for the trip. Isn't that exciting?"

Ino brushed off her skirt. It was a few inches shorter than the school guidelines said, but she could get away with anything. This is Ino Yamanaka we're talking about.

"Of course I heard, Naruto." she said as they stopped in at the light. "They only announced it all over the school."

"Oh. Right. No, you see, I was asking to see if you were going. If you ask my mom, she might unground me to go with you. You could say, I don't know, that since we're out of the country, maybe it is better to go with your cousin and all..."

Ino sighed. "Oh, Naruto. Fine, I'll see what I can do. You know, you still owe me for covering for you three nights ago."

Sai smiled. "There was also the kangaroo incident, and the water balloon incident and the-"

Naruto put his hand on Sai's mouth, effectively shutting him up. "Let's hurry up and get to class, should we."

Naruto ran on ahead.

"Naruto! Damn it, get back here! I'm wearing a skirt, you jerk!"

Naruto turned around as his cousin fought with her skirt. "I didn't think that a skirt that's supposed to reach mid-thigh could show so much!" he said as he pretended to check her out.

"You jerk!!"

* * *

"Hey, Ino. What's wrong? You look out of breath."

Ino glared at the retreating back of her cousin before sitting down.

"It's nothing, Hinata. It's just Naruto." Ino didn't notice the light blush on her friend's cheeks.

"If you're going to blush every time you hear of him, I'm going to get jealous."

"Oh! Kiba-kun!" said a surprised Hinata as her boyfriend gave her a peck on her cheek before setting down a box.

"How cute." said Ino. "You brought her lunch! What did you bring me?" she asked as her hand went to the lunch box. Kiba slapped her hand away.

"Um, Ino, if you want some, I'll give you some during lunch." said Hinata.

Kiba huffed and put his hands on his hips. "If she's so hungry, why doesn't she mooch off of Chouji?"

"She can't. She turned him down for a date yesterday."

"Really? I didn't-" Kiba turned around, only to find the eyes of his sensei looking at him.

"Kiba. What are you doing here? I don't have you until later, 3rd period if I'm correct."

"Oh, Kurenai-sensei! I was just-" Kiba looked about to panic.

"It was my fault, sensei! I asked him to bring me lunch." said Hinata, giggling at her boyfriend's shade of red.

Kurenai Yuhi sighed, and pointed to the door. Kiba glumly left, waving good-bye to Ino and Hinata.

Once he was gone, Kurenai sat at her desk. "Why this early in the morning? A calm morning, that's all I ask for..." The class sweat dropped. It must have been a bad night.

* * *

Naruto waved to Kiba as he sat down. "What's up? Kurenai catch you?" It was no secret that while she hadn't said anything _against_ her adoptive daughter's relationship, she was not kind on Kiba.

Kiba groaned in response. Naruto just laughed.

"So his pain is funny?" asked Sai from behind Naruto. Kiba had to laugh at that. The boy was so socially inept! It actually ended up with him making a friend out of Naruto. They had met at a hot spring, and it had not been a pretty experience. Thank god Naruto was Naruto. Anyone else would have fought with the poor guy!

Naruto saw Kiba laughing and his quick-thinking mind came up with a plan. "It is."

"Oh. Like this?" asked Sai, and using only one finger he dug his nail into Kiba's arm and twisted, effectively pinching poor Kiba.

"OW!"

"Inuzuka, don't scream in my class." said the teacher, barely entering the classroom.

"Sorry, Genma-sensei." Kiba answered, scowling at the boys. "You guys suck." he whispered, and began paying attention to the lesson. Maybe he should get better friends. A quick jaunt through his memories changed his mind though. He had forgotten about the prank he had already planned for Naruto.

* * *

"Don't forget to turn in your trip slips. If you want to go on the trip that is. Class dismissed!"

Kiba groaned as he stretched out. "Man, that was a hard test!"

Naruto just slumped in his seat and pound is head against the desk. "No thanks to you, I probably did worse. I'd been planning on studying during lunch."

"Yeah, yeah. You would have failed anyways. That test was a killer." answered Kiba.

"Really? I thought it was fairly easy. I only had to remember the information from up to last month."

Kiba and Naruto both looked at Sai as if he was some sort of idiot. _Actually, he can't be an idiot. He probably aced the test, so I'm looking at him as if he were some form of a genius?_ Both, unaware that they were following pretty much the same train of thought, just went even lower as their heads hurt from thinking too much.

"Naruto! Are you coming?!" A blond girl stood in the doorway. Her hair was in four pigtails and she seemed to be a senior.

"Temari-san. I'm tired."

Kiba tried not to laugh. Poor Naruto. Not only Ino, but Temari as well.

Naruto groaned as he thought that his day was still not over. He still had to go to work, plus his homework.

"Too. Much. Stuff. To. Do." he moaned to himself as he walked out with Temari in tow.

Kiba laughed at his poor friends fate, when his walked into the room as well. In the doorway stood Ino, Hinata, and Kurenai. Sai just sat there smiling and following behind as all three girls ganged up on the poor Inuzuka. He faintly wondered who had it worse.

* * *

**ONE WEEK LATER**

"Finally! I can breathe easily knowing that there's spring break next week!"

"Don't you have homework, Naruto?" pointed out Sai as he looked through his own, equally large pile of homework.

"Just keep quiet and maybe I'll forget and actually have fun during this trip." he said as he walked towards the school. Both boys were carrying suitcases for the week long trip. Thankfully vacation was two weeks long.

"Naruto, carry my suitcases, would you?" asked Ino sweetly as she came up to the two boys. She placed the three suitcases she was bringing with her on top of her poor cousin. Naruto looked at her cousin in amazement.

"You expect me to carry all of this?!" Naruto tried to take a step forward but crumpled under the weight.

"You still owe me, for the kangaroo thing as well. So there!" said Ino, her voice speaking of terrible things that he knew she would do to him. Stupid kangaroo.

They saw Kiba approach them. Kiba, like all of them, was out of his school uniform. Instead, he had on long shorts and a red T-shirt. Next to him was Hinata, wearing a yellow sun dress.

Ino was wearing a hot pink off the shoulder top reaching mid thigh and tight black jeans. Her hair was let down. Naruto was wearing a blue T-shirt and jeans. He had forgotten about the field trip. Sai was wearing a short T-shirt that if he stretched long enough showed his stomach and shorts.

"Hey, Hinata, Kiba! Where's Kurenai-sensei?" asked Ino while ignoring her poor cousin's tries at getting up off the floor. Sai took pity on him and removed a suitcase so he wouldn't die of the weight.

"Mom said she didn't think anybody would want their mother on this trip, so she'd already talked it over with the principal. She won't be coming this trip." said Hinata.

"That was really nice of her." said Sai as they all began loading onto the bus.

"Glad to see everyone could make it."

"Hey, Chouji. How have you been?" Ino greeted her friend. Chouji just smiled.

"I'm okay. How many of those suitcases are yours?" he asked as he looked at poor Naruto, _still_ struggling with the suitcases.

"Why did you bring so much stuff? It's only for a week." Temari joined the group as Kiba and Hinata said something about going to sit in the other bus.

Ino stared at the amount of stuff the senior was bringing. "You're bringing _that?!_"

Temari had a small backpack and, no that was it. Ino could not believe it.

"Oh, didn't I tell you guys? My two brothers live there. I'll be staying at the hotel, but I have clothing at their house."

No one answered the blond at the surprising news. They didn't even know she had a brother, much less two!

Quietly, everyone entered their respective buses and decided that it would be easier to not say anything at all. The bus ride to the airport passed in relative silence.

* * *

**AFTER THE PLANE RIDE**

"This! This is the airport?!" asked Naruto. It was a lot bigger than the one at home!

"We're in America, Naruto. Yes, this is the airport. Now can we go get our luggage. The teachers are getting impatient." Ino grabbed Naruto's elbow and dragged him towards their luggage.

The rest followed along, taking in the sights. Thankfully, the hotel was close to the airport so they could get to the hotel without fighting with buses or taxis.

"Two to a room, our rooms are in this entire hallway. We teachers have rooms in the floor above. Girls, your rooms to my left, boys, to my right. No mixing! Just because we're not on the same floor doesn't mean anything. We're being really lenient allowing you to choose your own rooms and roommates. Try to not be too loud, we are not the only guests."

The students listened with one ear while they looked through all the rooms. All the rooms varied.

"Hinata! Let's take this room!" yelled Ino as she set her sights on the room at the far end of the hall. The room had two beds. Ino took the one nearest the door while Hinata took the one near the window. The beds had different bedsheets, but they shared the same base color of rose. There was a TV in another room that appeared to be a sitting area plus a small table that sat four.

"Alright!" answered Hinata. Kiba and Chouji took the one across from them while Naruto and Chouji took the one next to theirs. Temari had already talked it over with the teachers, she would be staying with her uncle and brothers.

Naruto and Sai's room was the same layout as the girl's except there was darker colors, as well as Kiba's and Chouji's. All the colors were more neutral than anything, though.

"Well, I'm off." said Temari as they settled into their rooms.

"Wait! Let's go with you! We get to go wherever we want, right? As long as we're here before nine and check in regularly, we can go see the sights. So why don't we go with you. Introduce us to your brothers, yeah?" said Naruto, sticking his head into the girl's room where Temari was.

Ino got her pillow and threw it at his head, hitting him square in the face. "Idiot, what if one of us was changing! Don't just open the door like that!" she yelled.

Naruto rubbed his bruised face. "If it's only you and Hinata-chan. I don't see what the big deal is."

"Idiot!" yelled Kiba, hitting Naruto in the back of his head.

"What ya hit me for?" asked Naruto. The two began to fight in the hallway.

Ino, used to their antics, just turned to Temari and said "Yeah! Take us with you! Why not? Are you ashamed of us?"

Temari felt her patience waver. That girl was too much like her cousin.

"Fine." she said reluctantly. "You guys can come."

As she saw her friends scream for joy, she couldn't help but feel like she had done a big mistake. Still, how much trouble could they get into?

* * *

She should have said no. Who knew that because of that, all of this would happen. Who knew that _they'd_ meet up here. Life really sucked sometimes.

How did this happen? Some higher deity must have a real sick sense of humor.

* * *

"Hey, Ai. Did you see this coming?" Sarah asked the young girl as the old man was freaking out.

"No."

"I don't think he did either."

* * *

AN: And chapter 1 is complete! Yay! Hope you liked it, but I don't think I'll be able to keep this pace of updates going. I'll try to update once a week, though. At the most once every two weeks. Hope you enjoyed! And review ya bunch o' lazy slackers! I know who you are! (no seriously, I get emails saying whenever I get on a story alert/favorites/reviews. Not to mention my hit counter.)

Thank you for reading! The last two sections speak about things to come!


	3. Chapter 2

**AN: **Yay! Another chapter! I tried a different writing style, so I hope it's okay! Things start to get more interesting as more characters are introduced.

Please enjoy! And review! I'll remove it if no one really likes it, so please!

**DISCLAIMER:** Me no own Naruto. Do you really think that if I did Karin would be all over Sasuke! (don't know who she is, get caught up with the manga!)

* * *

It came without warning. The city was pretty posh. The people there were not rich but well-off; near the beach but not on it, thankfully.

Those kinds of storms always came near that area, but this wasn't the season. The weather had been warm, there were actually people playing on the beach when it first began to rain. No one knows who they were since their bodies weren't found again.

Like I said, there wasn't any warning. They weren't the only ones either.

* * *

Three days into the trip and they were all in a schedule now. The gang visited Temari during the day, went to a different restaurant during the late afternoon, and checked out the tourist sights during the evening. Then they'd go to the hotel. Not much variation, but just doing that was something.

First off, Temari hadn't been lying. She did have two brothers, both younger, much to her annoyance. There was Kankuro, one year their senior, and Gaara, same age as them.

Kankuro loved puppets. Not liked, loved. It was something that he blamed on the environment, what with all the voodoo stuff that happened around there. They all tried to not laugh as they thought over the fact that not one of them had even seen anything related to voodoo while they were there. He told them to consider themselves lucky.

Then there was Gaara. The quiet one, the sarcastic one, the one with no eyebrows. No, seriously, the guy had no eyebrows. Creepy. That was one guy they just didn't get, and not only that, but it seemed that the entire city was either scared of him, or respected him highly. They were warded off the reason for that by a dark look sent by both Temari and Kankuro.

At that moment, they had no idea their lives were just about to change, and there was a slight chance it was not for the better.

* * *

"Gaara!" yelled Naruto, trying to sneak up on the redheaded boy like he always did.

"Yes, Naruto?" asked Gaara simply as he read his book.

Naruto looked slightly put out. It never worked! He kept trying the first time he met him to get the redhead to show him _some_ kind of expression, and it never worked. That might have to do with the fact that their house was considered haunted, but that didn't mean Naruto wouldn't try. He'd succeed where those wussy ghosts failed! For sure!

He hoped.

Behind him came Ino and Kiba, both talking about flowers. Naruto threw them an annoyed look. What was so interesting about flowers?

The rest were getting snacks in the very big kitchen. Who knew that Temari was so rich. Her family owned some sort of exports/imports company, except now it was being run by a good friend of the family's. Her father had died a few years ago, but they'd known that already, so no awkward moments!

Kankuro stood next to Temari while she was washing the dishes. It appeared as if both were listening were listening to the conversation, but in fact, they were having one of their own.

"Full moon's tonight." said Kankuro softly, lips barely moving. His sister could barely hear him over the sound of the rushing water.

"I know. How's he been?" she asked, taking her time with the dishes.

Kankuro glanced at the rest of the group. They were either sitting at the table or standing around it. None were paying any attention to them.

"Last month he had it a bit rough, but he's been calming down. Maybe it's all the company. He never really did have any friends."

Temari just nodded, but didn't say anymore. Neither did Kankuro. There wasn't anything else to say.

* * *

"So, what do you think, Gaara?" asked Naruto.

"Yeah!" chimed in Ino and Kiba.

Gaara was sitting down while the other three were around him, pleading. They wanted him to go with them to this concert they'd heard about. But, tonight was...

"Please?" asked Naruto, bunching his shoulders up. He was a bit old for the puppy eyes look, but that never stopped him before, and that wouldn't stop him now.

"Come on Gaara, all the rest of our friends are going. You'll be the only one. It'll be fun!"

Gaara turned to the blond, mouthing a single word before giving his answer. "Alright. I'll go."

"Yes!" yelled the three fools. They were giving each other high fives and shouting with joy.

"I knew we could do it!"

Gaara leaned back in his chair, a small smile on his usually expressionless face. 'Friends, huh?'

* * *

No one was going to the concert. Instead, around five in the afternoon they all retreated to their rooms. Temari, Gaara, and Kankuro decided that since nobody they knew had been there, they weren't the best people to comfort them.

Ino and Hinata were in their rooms, Hinata was crying.

"If I had insisted she come, then she would be fine! She didn't want to come because of me! What if she got seriously hurt or something! I'll never be able to forgive myself." she sobbed into Ino's shoulder while Ino tried to comfort her. She was crying too. There she'd been, there they'd all been, having fun while their families were in trouble. If anything happened to them, how could they ever forgive themselves?

Kiba and Chouji were mad. They were in their rooms as well, but they were mad. It was the kind of mad that came when you felt that nothing you could do could have helped. They were pissed.

Kiba could feel his heart constricting in his chest. What about his dog, and his sister? What about his parents? And his younger brother? Why was nobody telling them if they were safe?!

He could remember when they first received the news. It was early afternoon, around four, and they were coming back from Temari's when one of the other students came up to them, tears running from her eyes.

"_Where have you been?!" she yelled. Her hair was in disarray, her mouth open and drawing in short, fast breaths._

"_What's going on?" asked Sai, noticing how distraught the girl looked._

"_It's- back home- they might have died." at this point the girl collapsed on her knees, and cried. The gang decided to run towards the hotel. There they met up with one of the teachers._

"_You guys." said the teacher. It was the same one that had told them about the rooms. He was also crying._

"_There's been some bad news. Back home, it- there was a hurricane. A big one. The whole town was nearly wiped off the face of the map. We don't know who's dead and who's alive yet. Since it came without warning, no one had the chance to run. They're sending emergency help right now, but they said we should be glad we weren't there."_

Kiba felt like hitting the teacher right there and then. 'Glad we weren't there?!' he thought to himself, 'How is that such a good thing! Our families could be dead and he wants us to be glad we were having fun while they could be suffering?!' Kiba got his pillow and chucked it at the door right when somebody was entering.

"Waahh!" yelled Naruto while Sai stuck his hand in front of him and caught the pillow.

"Kiba! You want me to drop these or what? Oh, and thanks Sai." Naruto entered the room carrying a few drinks in his hands.

"You're welcome Naruto." Sai followed him in. He was carrying a bag from a fast food place. Kiba and Chouji gave the other two boys a look. Weren't they in their rooms as well?

"Don't give us that look!" yelled Naruto as he and Sai put the food and stuff on the table.

"Uh, thanks Naruto. I didn't know you had even left the hotel." said Chouji, looking amazingly grateful. Naruto just nodded.

"I thought you might be getting hungry, so I asked Sai to help me go get food for you all." he said, already taking the food out of the bag. Sai was putting straws in the drinks.

"What do you think you're doing, Naruto?" asked Kiba. His eyes were narrowed and he was staring at Naruto.

Naruto shrugged. "Feeding you guys. You guys didn't look as if you were leaving anytime soon, so I decided to do you a favor."

Naruto and Sai exited, leaving the door open. They went across the hall to the girl's room, carrying two drinks and another bag of hamburgers. Sai knocked.

Ino heard the knock and briefly wondered who it was. She swiped her sleeve over her nose and eyes and tried to stop the tears before opening the door. In the background of the quiet room, Hinata tried to do the same, although she wasn't able to stop crying.

Ino's eyes widened at the sight that greeted her. 'A bag of hamburgers was knocking on my door?' She looked behind and saw a smiling Naruto.

"Naruto? Sai? Uh, thanks."

Naruto and Sai only nodded.

Kiba growled as he left his room. His eyes were narrowed and staring at Naruto.

"What. The hell. Are you doing, Naruto?" Kiba walked up to Naruto, shoving Sai aside, and grabbed Naruto by his shirt collar. "Well?!"

Naruto didn't say anything. He expected something like this from somebody. Maybe not from Kiba, but from someone.

Kiba raised his fist and punched Naruto, sending the blond sprawling on the floor.

"Get up." Naruto didn't move. "I said, GET UP!"

By now the entire hallway was filled with open doors. Some of the students were muttering while others could only watch in morbid fascination. Still others looked at the poor boy with pity. Ino was holding Sai back before he got hurt as well.

Kiba felt rather than heard the whisperings of is fellow classmates. This only made him more mad. Why couldn't they just keep their noses out of other people's business?! Why wasn't Naruto getting up?! He had been hit even worse in their pretend fights! He got ready to hit Naruto again.

"Stop it, Kiba-kun!" Hinata pushed herself in front of him, holding on to Kiba's fist in fear that he might do something to hurt himself.

Kiba looked at Hinata, then again at Naruto. Naruto was getting up, his hair falling in front of his eyes. Naruto wiped his mouth against his fist, looking briefly at the blood.

"What is it, Kiba? Aren't you going to hit me?" Naruto took in a deep, steadying breath. "Well?!"

Kiba took in a deep breath too. He unclenched his fist and looked at Hinata, who had started crying even more so now.

Sai went to help Naruto up, as did Ino, Chouji, and Hinata, although she stayed closer to Kiba. Kiba looked at Naruto, feeling drawn to looking at him in the face. He didn't want to face Naruto after this, but his eyes moved upwards.

Naruto's eyes were dead. Cold. Unmoving, unfeeling. "I'm sorry. Naruto."

* * *

While all of that was happening, Gaara, Temari and Kankuro were not at home. They were all in the last place you'd expect them. A graveyard.

"It's not even a full moon yet." muttered the older brother as he sludged through the wet dirt.

"That's enough, Kankuro." said Temari, throwing a glance to her younger brother.

Gaara ignored his siblings. Instead, he took the lead and led them to a certain grave. Their father's grave. There was a woman waiting.

"So. You did come. I wondered. The spirits were saying quite a bit to make me worry." she said to Gaara, then gave the other two a small nod of acknowledgment.

Kankuro threw the old woman a skeptical look. He never did trust her, no matter how many years they'd been in business.

The woman cackled, throwing her head back as the wrinkles themselves jiggled too. She expected nothing less from him. He wasn't the one who interested her.

"Don't believe all you want, but I don't care. I'm glad you came, though. He seems a bit more active these past few nights. We'll have to work harder now than ever before."

The old woman passed her gaze over the three teens in front of her. In her ear she could hear them, the whispers of the dead. They weren't saying anything good.

They're back, and he doesn't like it.

He doesn't like it at all.

You won't be able to protect them, you know.

They're not the only ones.

She didn't like being underestimated. Whatever was going on now, she probably could not go against. But she had always been a stubborn woman.

Temari shivered. The woman's gaze. Kankuro and Gaara were shivering too. She couldn't tell if it was the cold, or that look.

"Let's begin."

* * *

Genma took in the boys in front of him. To tell the truth, he had never met them before in his life. He had no idea how to talk to them, but the government decided that it would be better if they were around others who, how did they put it, felt their pain.

'How did I get stuck with this? What the hell am I even supposed to say to them anyways?' Growling, he forced himself to look at the two boys.

One he had heard of. Shikamaru Nara. A genius, or so he heard. Had an IQ of over 200, though he supposed it was more likely around 150 than anything else.

The other was Sasuke Uchiha. Of course he had heard of the Uchihas. They owned a bodyguard company, that was thriving very well right around now. If anyone spoke about the sons, mostly it was about Itachi Uchiha. The elder brother was thought of as a prodigy. His accomplishments went from winning the Nobel Prize to helping a little girl do her homework. He doubted the younger brother was like that, and that he could see it might be the problem.

"The hotel doesn't have any more rooms, we booked it full, so you'll have to share rooms. There are only two beds per room, so I'll have to split you up as well. Any of the rooms strike out at you?" joked Genma while the two teenagers stared at the hall.

Shikamaru walked a few feet, then noticed the drop on the carpet. He stopped, bent down, and looked closer. 'So, I was right. It really is-'

"Shikamaru." Genma blinked. So the boy could talk, at least, that was the first word he had heard him speak.

Slowly the other two walked towards Shikamaru. They examined what Shikamaru was staring at.

'Tch. Those brats.'

Genma got up and walked towards the end of the hall. "Now, which side are the boy's? Oh, that's right. They got different rooms."

He knocked at the two end doors and stepped back as the doors were opened.

"What happened?" he asked, looking at the boys. Thankfully, he didn't have to ask for them. They opened the doors themselves.

"How did you-?" began Naruto, then stopped.

"Who are they?"

"These are Shikamaru Nara and Sasuke Uchiha. They were sent from home, or more like a few miles southward. After being stuck in the storm, their homes demolished, it was decided that it would be best if they were around others their age. One to each room. Figure the sleeping arrangements out yourselves. It's your punishment." With that, Genma turned his back to them and headed upstairs to his room.

"Oh, and no forcing them to sleep on the floor. Yeah?" He left.

Kiba and Naruto looked at the two boys. Slowly, they opened their doors fully, and called to their roommates. Sai and Chouji came to the doors. All six boys stood there awkwardly, Chouji and Sai having heard what was said.

'No one's going to say anything, are they.' thought Naruto with a sigh. He passed a hand through his hair, and Sasuke and Shikamaru noticed the bandage on the boy's chin.

"So, who's going where?"

Shikamaru began to walk towards Kiba and Chouji. "How troublesome. I'll take this room, I guess."

Sasuke saw his friend enter the room. He frowned at the ease Shikamaru could maintain an uncaring exterior.

"Huh. So, I wonder how sensei knew we were fighting." Sasuke's attention was drawn back to the other two. There was the blond, blue eyed boy with the bandage. There was also the other boy, black hair and a smile.

"Shikamaru noticed the blood on the floor. Other than that, I'm guessing your reputation."

Sasuke glared at the pair. Already he didn't like them. Naruto closed the door as all three entered the room.

* * *

The following day everyone was going about normally. Or at least tried to. Tensions were still a bit high, but they were definitely understood. There was only so much you could take from the press.

_'We have heard reports that the students here all have family and homes in the disaster area. Unfortunately, the teachers are refusing to comment, saying that the students themselves need some spa-'_

Ino turned off the machine. 'Stupid press.'

"Are you ready to go Ino?" asked Hinata. She looked at her best friend.

Ino nodded. "You reply yet?" Hinata nodded as well, and the girls headed out. Before the door closed, Ino said "I still don't know how you managed to find a pen-pal when I don't even have a boyfriend. So not fair."

Hinata giggled. "Shino-kun and I just found out we have some things in common is all."

* * *

"There you guys are!" yelled Naruto as he took the bread out of his mouth.

"Don't talk with your mouth full!" yelled Ino, hitting Naruto on the head.

"Ah! Hey, Ino, this is Sasuke Uchiha. That's Shikamaru Nara. Sasuke, my cousin Ino and friend Hinata, who is also Kiba's girlfriend. Shikamaru."

The boys nodded in greeting at the girls. They had all become acquainted last night, and had heard of the girls. They had also heard of Temari, but due to the heightened security, they thought it best if she stayed with her brothers. From her last phone call, though, it appeared like the media got to her too.

They were all on the highest floor, which had a coffee shop on it. They didn't want to go downstairs to eat, because the restaurant was on the ground floor where all the cameras were. So, they settled with speaking to their friends at the coffee shop and just didn't think about it.

* * *

"What's wrong?" asked the little girl to the man. The man was frowning.

"I didn't expect them to meet up." he said.

The little girl began to frown too. They seemed so happy, even though this bad thing happened to them. Why was he worried?

"They love each other. Why shouldn't they meet up?" The girl received no answer. Instead, both she and him began to pay attention to what was happening. She didn't understand, but it looks like them meeting was a bad thing.

* * *

Ch. 2 is done! Yeah! I'm thinking about making a love triangle between Ino, Shikamaru and Chouji. Plus, I'm leaning towards SasuNaru on this. I don't know if I'll write it, though, at least, not yet. I might not even add any more romance as it is. But review and tell me what you thought! Please! 


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